EXECUTIVE AT OUTDOORS RETAILER PICKED TO LEAD INTERIOR DEPARTMENT

WASHINGTON 
President Barack Obama nominated a former petroleum engineer and commercial banker who is also a conservationist and chief executive of an outdoors retailer to lead the Interior Department Wednesday, making an unorthodox selection for his first female nominee to his second-term Cabinet.

Sally Jewell, president and CEO of Recreational Equipment Inc., has no government credentials and little public policy experience. But her résumé could appeal to the feuding interests that consume much of the debate at the department: the oil and gas extraction industries seeking access to public land and the environmentalists seeking preservation.

Jewell said she was “humbled and energized” at the prospect of leading the Interior Department, which manages more than 500 million acres in national parks and other public lands, as well as more than 1 billion acres offshore.

If confirmed by the Senate, Jewell, 56, will replace Ken Salazar, a former Colorado senator who served in the post throughout the president’s first term. Salazar has overseen a period of expanding resource extraction on federal lands, to the dismay of environmental groups who contend that the push for energy independence has too often trumped environmental concerns.

Salazar has drawn fire from Republicans who blame the administration for not moving fast enough to open untouched areas to industry exploration.

Without a public record, little is known about where Jewell will stand in the fight. Environmental groups praised her appointment, while industry groups and Republican lawmakers withheld judgment.

In announcing his choice, Obama cast Jewell as someone who would seek a balance.

“She knows the link between conservation and good jobs,” Obama said in remarks at the White House. “She knows that there’s no contradiction between being good stewards of the land and our economic progress, that, in fact, those two things need to go hand-in-hand.”

Jewell graduated with an engineering degree from the University of Washington and started her career working in the oil fields of Oklahoma and Colorado for Mobil Oil Corp. She then moved to the banking industry, where she advised banks on their energy assets, according to a profile in The Seattle Times.

Over nearly two decades, she rose in the banking industry, eventually heading up Washington Mutual’s commercial banking division before joining the REI board in 1996. She became chief operating officer four years later and took over the top job in 2005.

Her REI tenure was marked by considerable growth and expansion. At the same time, she and the $1.8 billion company supported initiatives that sought to draw new, more diverse communities to the outdoors.

The REI Foundation contributed to the National Audubon Society to build nature centers that introduce the outdoors to underserved communities. Jewell and REI worked with the Sierra Club to get veterans and inner city youth, among others, to the parks and to support local hiking and outdoors chapters.

Jewell, who is married with two grown children, was paid more than $2 million as REI’s CEO in 2011. She contributed $5,000 to the Obama Victory Fund, a joint fundraising committee set up by Obama and the Democratic Party, according to federal election records.